How about a whirlwind tour of choral music around the world at Christmastime? From poetry in Japan to a carol in South Africa to a letter to Santa in New York City?
And what about a local official for a tour guide?
That possibility will be realized when Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling emcees Sno-King Chorale’s upcoming “Holiday Magic: A World of Celebration.”
Highlighting this ambitious program’s first half will be the Nativity theme threaded through the “Kling, Glocken, Kling” from Germany, “Dormi, Dormi, O Bel Bambin” from Italy, “Alleluyah Sasa” from South Africa and others.
By way of contrast, Ruth Morris Gray’s “Three Japanese Poems (Snow, Wind and Rain)” will celebrate the season’s beauty in nature, Candle In The Night, the Jewish ceremony associated with Hanukkah and other selections.
From faraway places to Christmas here at home, the program’s second half will shift focus to “Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” embellished by a potpourri of pop favorites including “Merry Christmas, Merry Christmas,” “I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas” and “Here We Come A-Caroling.”
“Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus” is the first sentence of the now-famous New York Sun’s editorial reply to eight-year-old Virginia O’Hanlon in New York City in 1897.
The editor who wrote the reply was Francis Pharcellus Church, an ex-American Civil War war correspondent who had seen first-hand the suffering and despair that results from hopelessness and lack of faith.
In little Virginia’s letter to The Sun asking whether there is a Santa Claus, Church saw his chance to openly and publicly affirm the values he, people around the world and we share. They are also the values Sno-King will sing about: faith, hope and joy.
Terrific way to pump holiday spirit, don’t you think?
Sno-King
When: 3:30 and 7:30 p.m. Dec. 10
Where: Edmonds Center for the Arts, 410 Fourth Ave. N
Tickets: $20 adult, $15 student/senior, $10 child, call 425-275-9595 or go to www.ec4arts.org or www.sno-kingchorale.org
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